To what extent does my ward/SOA resemble a "sustainable community" and to what extent i don't think it does? Give some evidence from my observations (or my memories) of this judgement.
Within my SOA (Northampton 028A), in 2007 there was an estimated 2395 residents (1208 males and 1187 females) and 1358 dwellings, with 36% of people aged between 16 and 29. With 69.8% of people's health rated as "good" (April 2001), at first glimpse this may seem like a great place to live with lots of green open spaces and little graffiti, however all is not as it seems. In our family alone, our car has been broken into twice (different car each time) and my brother mugged on his way home from work. Old washing machines and rubbish dumped in piles, hidden in plain site, with the occasional abandoned (sometimes burnt) car left unmoved. The police have done little to prevent crime from happening and seem disorganised when they visit if you phone about a crime (found out via personal experience).
But don't let a few negatives cloud your view just yet as the schools in the surrounding area are great and 58.9% of the area is green space and only 2.7% being domestic buildings. The people are friendly and willing to help and even with the high(ish) crime rate, it is still a great place to live. As the saying goes "don't knock it 'till you try it"!
As far as being sustainable, Northampton 028A is not the best example but that doesn't mean that it isn't a great place to grow up. There are some things that need improving, as like any other area but I have lived here my entire life (bar the year and a half i lived in Great Billing due to the floods) and i would not change that for anything.
All data from: www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination
On your picture at the top of your blog, it shows that you SOA is rather large in comparison to the other SOA's in the image. I guess this could be because the image cuts off parts of the other SOA's. Although if it does not, then it may seem a little unreasonable to compare the crime rates your SOA with others in Northampton. This is well written and flows well. It was a little misleading at parts but once I re-read it, it did make more sense.
ReplyDelete